LAHORE/GUJRAT/BAHAWALPUR: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested seven suspects in various cases, including fake visas, visa fraud and human trafficking, in Lahore, Sialkot, Multan and Bahawalpur on Tuesday.

At the Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, the FIA arrested a passenger for attempting to travel to Italy on a fake identity.

The suspect tried to travel to Italy on flight FZ-360 by presenting a fake identity. He falsely himself as Muhammad Rehman Tariq but during immigration clearance, his real name was found to be Muhammad Ahsan Tariq.

The suspect was attempting to travel to Italy using his brother’s documents. His brother had sent the travel documents from Italy via mail. The suspect had previously stayed in Italy from 2016 to 2018 and was well familiar with the Italian language.

At Sialkot airport, the immigration authorities of FIA detained a passenger on arrival from Dubai over a fraud case.

A brother of the passenger who had to receive him was also arrested as he too was the accused in the same case.

An FIA official said during immigration clearance of Flight 3L311, Husnain Dar, a resident of Gujrat, arrived from the UAE.

During immigration process, he was detected by the IBMS system having a record of the FIR.

His brother, Ali Raza Dar, was also nominated in the same case and FIA also arrested him also.

At the same airport, an Umrah pilgrim was arrested on arrival from KSA for travelling on a fake passport.

A senior FIA official told Dawn that one Khurram Shahzad of Gujrat had arrived from KSA. During the immigration process, it was revealed that the passenger’s original name was Rukhsar Ahmad, son of Adalat Khan, who was residing in Italy for the last 15 years. He wanted to leave Italy permanently after the death of his wife.

In this regard, he said an agent, named Malik Shan of Lalamusa, offered him to sell his Italian documents to Khurram Shahzad, son of Muhammad Akram, against a heavy amount, a brand new Honda bike and Umrah package. Therefore, he traveled from Lahore airport to Saudia on 08 March 2026 and Khurram Shahzad also traveled from Lahore to Saudia on March 18 and he exchanged his Pakistani passport and Italian residence card with Khurram Shahzad and took his documents to travel back to Pakistan.

In the Multan zone, the FIA arrested two suspects allegedly involved in human smuggling in operations in Vehari and Bahawalnagar districts.

A team arrested one Safdar Ali from Vehari as he was wanted in a human smuggling case and was accused of collecting Rs700,000 from a complainant on the pretext of arranging an employment visa for Saudi Arabia. However, he failed in fulfilling the promise.

In another operation, FIA Deputy Director Bahawalpur Rab Nawaz led a team that arrested Muhammad Usman from Bahawalnagar as he obtained Rs415,000 from a complainant for a Saudi work visa which he did not provide.

On the other hand, the FIA Bahawalpur circle arrested an accused belonging to Bahawalpur district Rs5m from 14 people in the name of Umrah visas in 2025 but did fraud.

According to FIA spokesman, Qari Muhammad Yasir, a resident of village Mural near Sammsatta on Dec 10, 2025 registered a fraud case against Aashir Amin, Haji Khwaja Younus, Mehrab Khursheed and Khursheed Ahmed for extorting Rs5.5m from Mueen Khalid, Khalida Bibi and 12 others to arrange Umrah for them in Saudi Arabia. All were asked to reach Karachi airport on Oct 26, 2025, where the suspects demanded more money, which was also paid. But even then, the suspects disappeared mysteriously and could not be located anywhere.

The FIA had registered a case and declared the suspects as absconders. FIA arrested the main suspect, Aashir Amin, while his three accomplices were yet to be arrested.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2026